In their infinite wisdom, World Rugby chose to schedule the World Cup in a country that is prone to typhoons at this time of year, and to make absolutely no contingency plans should a typhoon threaten.
In a development that appears to have taken the organisers completely by surprise, there is a typhoon headed in Japan’s direction, and two matches have been cancelled, with Japan v Scotland still in doubt.
France will miss out on the possibility of beating England to top their group, and Italy will miss out on a historic chance to beat the All-Blacks and progress to the quarter-finals for the first time.
All right, nobody thinks that Italy would have beaten New Zealand, but it’s a funny old game and a couple of red cards, or another sneaky peek at the rule-book, could have produced the upset of the century. Apparently we’ll never know.
As Parisse said:
“It is ridiculous that a decision of this nature has been made because it isn’t like the fans arrived yesterday. It is ridiculous that there was no plan B, because it isn’t news that typhoons hit Japan.
“Sure everyone might think that Italy versus New Zealand being cancelled counts for nothing because we’d have lost anyway, but we deserved to be respected as a team. We had the chance to play in a big stadium, against a great team.
“The alternative is plan B. When you organise a World Cup you should have one in place.”
Should the Japan v Scotland match be cancelled, all three teams in Pool A contention will have reason to feel aggrieved also: Scotland for obvious reasons, Japan because it is not the way you’d want to go through, and Ireland because they miss the chance to top the pool (that being in Scotland’s gift, rather than Ireland’s hands, of course).
Quite frankly, World Cup should be handed a red card for bringing the game into disrepute. Players and fans alike (and no doubt the sponsors too) are rightly furious.
These matches should be rescheduled in alternative locations.
Last weekend’s rugby
For a rundown on the state of play as of 07/10, please see Deebee’s excellent synopsis.
On the telly this week … or not
Friday 11th October
| Australia 27 – 8 Georgia | 11:15 | ITV4 |
| Cheetahs 40 – 16 Munster | 17:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Dragons 14 – 38 Connacht | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 / TG4 / S4C |
| Leinster 40 – 14 Edinburgh | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Gloucester 24 – 26 Bath | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 12th October
| New Zealand v Italy | 05:45 | CANCELLED |
| England v France | 09:15 | CANCELLED |
| Ireland 47 – 5 Samoa | 11:45 | ITV |
| Kings 17 – 42 Ulster | 15:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Scarlets 54 – 10 Zebre | 15:00 | Freesports |
| Ospreys v Treviso | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Glasgow v Cardiff | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
Sunday 13th October
| Namibia v Canada | 04:15 | ITV |
| USA v Tonga | 06:45 | ITV |
| Wales v Uruguay | 09:10 | ITV / S4C |
| Japan v Scotland | 11:45 | ITV |
@sunbeamtim
I am of the opinion Garces is either a brilliant unbiased ref or he is terribly biased, depending on if England win or not.
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“Anyone got any more informed opinions?”
LMFAO
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Pro, I suspect that the Japanese boots on the ground would have done what they did come what may, in an honest effort to get the game played, as a matter of local pride. I don’t think that Dodson would have had any influence on them, it was the organising authorities he was trying to put pressure on. As I said in the previous post, Cheika seems to think that England already knew about their cancellation way before the announcement. If that is true, ( I thought that they were only told at the press conference to announce the team ), then something nefarious went on. If it is not true, Cheika has opened himself up to a charge of disrepute as well. What is not in doubt is that someone, somewhere, was woefully inadequate in their planning.
Hindsight is a great thing.
Best draw a line under the whole affair. Noone will come out of it well.
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Rugby would be as right as rain if it could just forget the American market.
Build up a meaningful competition in South America with loads of investment so the Pumas and Uruguay can play against their neighbours in a very rich competition.
Build up a meaningful competition around Japan, South Africa and the PIs in a very rich tournament.
Leave Oz and NZud to fight over the Bledisoe Cup for evermore.
Go back to a 5N.
Build up a European Championship called the Parisse Cup for mainland Europe.
Fire Canada into the sun.
Extol the virtues of the USA being the world’s best at baseball, ice hockey, gridiron, and basketball. If they desire another sport to yank over, direct them to soccer.
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“the Japanese boots on the ground would have done what they did come what may, in an honest effort to get the game played, as a matter of local pride”
Let’s face it though, without saying it directly, there was always a hint of accusation from some quarters that it would be better for Japan (and WR) if the game wasn’t played, therefore a cancellation might be the easiest option.
When you use words like ‘shafted’ you indicate some sort of nefarious conspiracy rather than rotten luck.
I do wonder if this might have been different had it not involved the home team.
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Bit harsh on the Canuks, Iks, but otherwise…
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@MisterIKS
The USA now has 10 more professional teams than Scotland and 8 more than Wales.
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Canada are firing themselves in the sun.
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Just a couple of things, if I may.
Canada’s game was cancelled, hence they had the opportunity to help out. Scotland’s game was not cancelled therefore they did not have the opportunity to help out.
Also, Namibia, England, France, New Zealand and Italy all had games cancelled and also therefore had the chance to help out.
Plus Scotland over the years Dodson has been in charge have played a number of Tier 2 countries, such as Fiji in Fiji (we lost), Canada in Canada (we won), USA in USA (we lost), Georgia in Georgia (we won) and Australia in Australia (we won). So we’ve done our bit in “growing the game”.
Lastly, I don’t believe that ANY of this has anything to do with Japan (either the team or the country) and everything to do with DBWR.
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‘Professional’
Iksmeister, is France not part of Mainland Europe? Has the Brexit backstop debate moved a little faster than I thought? Should we be worried? Is this a fiendish German plan to become the Heartland of European rugby, with Italy a poor outlier?
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Still, at least we can export Scotch Beef to Japan again. I call that a win!
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What about scotch eggs? And Scotch? And haggis? Please export all the haggis as well. I like visiting Scotland, but fear for my health when that stuff comes into view.
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Shabby stats based on demographics and clue about the sport.
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Is scotch beef like a sort of Sunday roast marinaded in Glenmorangie ?
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Nice introduction of F&R there BB.
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Iks – agreed; the last thing rugby needs is the Yanks getting seriously interested and then agitating for changes such as breaks for adverts every ten minutes. (You could call it a scrum….)
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@SBT.
Now THAT I would love to try!
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There is no one in rugby more critical of the SRU in general and Mark Dodson in particular that David Barnes of The Offside Line, this goes back a lone way, it has surfaced in recent years in the restructuring of the Scottish game below the professional sides, this has faced a lot of resistance in Scotland, the usual names are btl in the article I’m about to post. If anyone is interested enough to see how The Offside Line write about the governing body, take a look at what they term The Keith Russell affair – yes, that’s Finn’s dad.
Anyway, what all that in mind, here is what Barnes has written today
https://www.theoffsideline.com/scotland-face-disciplinary-action-over-response-to-match-cancellation-threat/
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Ah Deebee, of course France are.
But for this change to happen one must not Ovally tamper with the culture and foundations of the 5 Nations. Unless France can’t be bothered of course because of Top14 commitments.
In such an event then 4 Nations and France sends their developing players to the Euros to exprose themselves.
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It’ll be an Agile Scrum, Thauma.
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Hopefully that should clear a few things up, Ticht. Comments below the line interesting too.
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Iks you’re a gem. Until next weekend at least assuming both our sides make it through.
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Argh, argh, don’t say those words, Iks! It’s the new religious cult at w*rk.
Had a dream t’other night where I was sentenced to work in one. Everything went wrong, nothing worked and in the end the roof caved in.
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SBT, like I say, the comments are from the same usual disgruntled subjects who always bash the SRU, It’s probably the same in most unions, but the governing body kop all sorts from clubs and the rugby public in Scotland who really only can see any problem from their own perspective, not the sport as a whole, which the SRU is responsible for.
I’m no great big fan of the SRU, but they are not always in the wrong and I don’t believe they were in the wrong for wanting Scotland’s game to be played, everyone wanted that game to be played, it has been talked up for years as the big match in that pool, and so it turned out to be.
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Plus it’s another evil Yank plot. What do Yanks in general know about rugby? Nuffink, that’s what. That’s why they decided to use the sexist term ‘scrum master’ instead of the perfectly gender-neutral ‘scrum-half’.
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@Ticht
The question I would ask is, is Scottish rugby in general in a better place now than it was when Dodson took over? I don’t have an answer for that, but I think you have a better handle on the workings of Scottish rugby. Having said that, I think we might well be, despite Sunday.
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Interesting link, Ticht.
Made me wonder about WR circling the wagons and shooting the messenger at the same time. Like ‘how dare you publicly criticise us?’ Which then becomes the priority ahead of dealing with the mistakes / oversights they might actually be responsible for.
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@Thauma
“agitating for changes such as breaks for adverts every ten minutes”.
The continuous nature of rugby is what appeals to plenty of Americans.
No one likes the commercial breaks in football.
MLS started with a few rule differences for an American audience (no extra stoppages for commercial breaks, however) but they were unpopular with fans and quickly abandoned to a large degree.
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Thaum – just wondering if you were thinking about refreshing the blog? If so I have a half written atl I can send you. If you wanted it before the next atl when would be a good time?
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“The question I would ask is, is Scottish rugby in general in a better place now than it was when Dodson took over? I don’t have an answer for that, but I think you have a better handle on the workings of Scottish rugby. Having said that, I think we might well be, despite Sunday.”
BB, whilst it’s a long way off perfect, rugby in Scotland is in a much better state than it was BD, before Dodson, the financials are much better – the crippling debt from the Murrayfield build has all but gone, Glasgow are in the frame at the business end of the league each year, Edinburgh will get there. The new academy system is very good, the Super 6 will have teething problems, all new projects do, perhaps Thaum could bed in an agile culture there?
The new proscribed amateur status below the S6 ensures no one comes in and buys their way up through the leagues, draining some clubs of their best players, it makes the structure a lot more sustainable. I don’t know what we can do about keeping kids in rugby beyond school age, work/life balances have shifted, there are other sports and pastimes etc, but this is not a problem unique to Scotland
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To clarify, I will send it fully written.
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Aw come on Thauma, who walks into a MacD and orders something with ‘half’ on the menu? Unless it is prefixed by ‘extra’.
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Craigs – nice! I’ll put up a new one on Thursday evening, so if you could send it through by Thursday afternoon, that’d be great.
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“Made me wonder about WR circling the wagons and shooting the messenger at the same time. Like ‘how dare you publicly criticise us?’ Which then becomes the priority ahead of dealing with the mistakes / oversights they might actually be responsible for.”
I think there is some of that, MrIks, my guess is that there will still be bad feeling for the World League thing too, which was the shaft of all shafts to T2, but hey, it was never about them anyway.
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Is ‘hooker’ gender neutral? I suppose it is. But maybe it should be changed to ‘escort’ in the men’s game.
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“The continuous nature of rugby is what appeals to plenty of Americans.”
Ireland would seem to be the perfect ambassadors if you like a bit of continuity.
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Thaum – cool. I’ll finish it off tonight (probably).
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Iks – are MacDo’s doing masterburgers now? (Karl?)
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Craigs – even better, ta!
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Dog knows Thauma. I’ve been in MacD’s about 3 times in my life.
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For “proscribed amateur status ” up there, please read “proscribed professional status” or even “enforced amateur status” – brain fart, soz
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A fairly effective way and simple way to ensure stronger teams get to play against T2/3 teams once in a while might be to do away with automatic qualification for the World Cup.
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You let the Septics into the game, they’ll get beaten by France and then invade Norway. Then they’ll elect Donald Trump as NYBWR president, and he’ll impose tariffs on all other nations wanting to compete, and want to build a wall between the US and Canada, after the Canadians beat them.
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@MisterIKS
The same thing over and over again isn’t going to appeal that much to US audiences.
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PMSL. Baseball, basketball? I pledge allegiance to the flag…. Not to mention practically every Hollywood film having the same plot.
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They shouldn’t have said the nonsense “robust” contingency plans in place but isn’t cancelling the game and give each team two match points a contingency plan? Not a very good one but still a contingency plan.
I feel for some sympathy for the SRU in that New Zealand and Italy, it’s reported, were offered a postponement, As was their right, it’s also reported, NZ turned it down. That meant a postponement of the Scottish match was impossible. And Scotland knew they needed to play to qualify. However, there was the suggestion earlier in the week from Andy Farrell that the RWC organisers would seek to move the day and/or location of the Ireland-Samoa game when Hagibis looked to be on a path heading to Kyushu.
In short, World Rugby seem to have been saying one thing and doing another. The SRU’s aggressive attitude wasn’t very palatable.
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“The same thing over and over again isn’t going to appeal that much to US audiences.”
?
!
!?
Over to you, Expro.
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Meanwhile I have to get home to watch Raymond, or perhaps a basketball match. Igor, where’s my hotdog?
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In what way was the SRU attitude aggressive, TomP?
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I’ve seen the figures for NBC Sports World Cup coverage.
Game 1 – USA lost – 1.94 million
Game 2 – USA lost – 1.76 million
Game 3 – USA lost – 1.22 million
Game 4 – USA lost – 128
It’s true that Americans don’t like seeing the same thing over and over again.
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